


Turnabout

by CyelenaLavellan



Series: Shrikethrush, Lion, & Bull [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Oral Sex, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Orgasm Denial, Sex, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 06:20:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7789996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyelenaLavellan/pseuds/CyelenaLavellan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iron Bull's lessons begin. A direct continuation of Too Much And Not Enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turnabout

The next time the three of them meet, Iron Bull gets straight to business. “Basically,” he tells Cyelena, “you really like sex, and it take a lot to tire you out. But you already knew that.”

His eye turns to Cullen next.

“She just needs a little more attention than your average woman. Nothing wrong with that at all.”

“No,” Cullen agrees, eager and hoping Cyelena will note his dedication. “And you’ll…you’ll show me how to … give her that attention?”

“Yes. Tonight, you’re going to do everything I tell you to do to her.”

A shiver runs its way through Cyelena’s entire body, anticipation already building in her gut.

“You spend all your time trying to get her off, because you know it’s only the first of many times. You’ve never made her really _work_ for it. So. Take off your shoes and trousers. Then lay her out on the bed.”

Cullen does as instructed, stripping out of his many layers hastily. Cyelena waits, feeling nervous, as she watches Bull drag her desk chair over to the side of the bed. Her anxiety melts away, but for a brief moment, when Cullen lifts her into his arms and carries her over to the mattress, and she can’t help but press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. 

“Her ears,” Bull instructs. “Stroke, kiss them, whatever you can think to do. But _just_ the ears.”

Cullen starts with his mouth on a lobe, while his finger traces the shell of her other ear. He works slowly, more slowly than Cyelena will be able to stand before long, his tongue lapping gently, focused thoroughly on wetting the lower part of her ear before drawing closer to the sensitive tip. Just before he reaches it, he shifts his mouth’s attention to her other ear, humming quietly, giving just a hint of vibration as he licks his way to the very top of it. When he bites down, a whine tears itself from her throat, and she shifts restlessly on the mattress. 

“She doesn’t get anything more than this,” Bull says. “Not until she’s past good and ready for it.”

Cullen continues dutifully at the same maddening pace, keeping his hands and mouth focused entirely on her ears alone. After several long minutes it becomes a sort of torture; she clutches and twists the bedsheets tightly in both hands to keep from touching herself. She isn’t used to him touching her like this without at least using his fingers to provide her with the relief she craves. She lets out a scream; she doesn’t know what else she can do. It’s all too much and not enough. 

“Never not been able to get what you want when you wanted it before. But now you take only what you are given.” Bull’s form is a blur from Cyelena’s spot on the bed, with her eyes glassy from the buildup of unshed tears of frustration. “You’re already dripping, aren’t you? _Answer.”_

The authority in his voice sends a thrill directly up her spine. Cyelena whimpers. “Yes.”

“Good. Take off her clothes. Breasts next. Like before, _only_ the breasts.”

Again, the torture begins anew. Cyelena can’t prevent herself from shuddering as Cullen licks and nibbles and squeezes, unrelenting, until her nipples are tender and sore. She feels him smile against her skin before redoubling his efforts, biting and pinching harshly now; Bull leans forward in his chair.

“If it gets to be too much, if you want the game to end,” he says to her, “You say ‘Katoh,’ and it’s over. You can beg and cry and scream in the meantime, but ‘katoh’ is the only word that will make it end. All right?”

Cyelena nods vigorously, eyes screwed tightly shut. She isn’t sure she’ll be able to make it through the rest of whatever Bull has planned; that word dances on the tip of her tongue, and her desperation for _some_ sort of relief burns. 

She bites her lip, unwilling to give in. She knows she’d regret it later, being unable to stand the barest of foreplay without breaking down and begging for release. The whole point of all of this is to learn how to rein her libido in, so that the number of her orgasms does not always dwarf her lover’s, so that there might be some sort of balance between them when they’re intimate together.

She tries to take a deep breath, but the shudders wracking her body turn it into a series of gasps instead. Cullen knows the signs of her impending orgasm instinctively by now, so he knows when to draw back, to keep Cyelena in this desperate sate of continual, torturous arousal without instruction from the Iron Bull. Until today, he’d never considered holding back, because bringing her to her peak had always been the goal between them. 

“Take her mouth now,” Bull says. “Have her keep her hands behind her back. Go as deep as you can go. Make her work for it.”

Cyelena wobbles unsteadily to her knees and lets Cullen’s hand on the back of her head guide her to his cock. Keeping her balance is difficult with her hands behind her back, so she has to widen her stance. Moisture drips from her sopping wet cunt to pool on the sheets. Cullen’s gaze catches it as he slides into her mouth, and he has to close his eyes for a moment to compose himself. Then he pushes deeper, down her throat, until she gags.

“Hold her there.”

“Can you—?” Cullen almost pulls back, concerned, but Cyelena moans and keeps her lips wrapped firmly around him. 

“She can,” Bull assures him. “Now _take her.”_

The grip on her hair is tight as he eases in and out of her hot mouth. When Cullen’s heavily-lidded gaze falls to Cyelena’s face, his cock throbs in response to the sight of her. She licks as much of him as she can, eventually giving up on any sort of technique when the pace becomes too frenetic for her to keep up with. Cullen drags her by the hair until he’s down her throat again, balls slapping against her chin, then pulls her off just far enough for her to suck at the head and make him shudder.

“ _Maker_ …” He squeezes his eyes shut.

“Harder.” Bull’s voice is stern. “Faster.”

Cullen obeys, shoving himself fully into Cyelena’s mouth with such force that she chokes. Before long her jaw aches and sweat drips down her back, so she focuses on that, anything to distract her from the wet heat between her legs. His entire body shudders with every spasm of her throat, until he pulls out of her mouth and comes with a groan, spilling across her neck and chest. Cyelena splutters, watching as he strokes himself to full completion, and finally uncrossing her arms from their position behind her back. She instinctively shoves a hand between her thighs in an instant, but it’s pulled away so fast she can hardy register the fact that Bull is the one restraining her. She hadn’t even heard his chair move.

_“Not yet,”_ Bull says in a low voice. “Not until you make him come again.”

“What? Bull—I—” Cyelena whines. “I-I _need_ to come… _Please!_ ”

“Remember the word. ‘Katoh.’ That’s the only way out of this.”

_No, no it isn’t._ It’s not an option. She can’t tap out now. All she can do is allow Cullen, following the Iron Bull’s guidance, to settle her back down on the mattress and fondle her again, this time _past_ the point of madness.

It takes an eternity, or something like it, before Cullen’s cock begins to stir to life again. Cyelena, so pleased she could cry, takes him in her shuddering grip and pumps the length of his cock, dragging a groan from his lips. 

“I need you inside of me,” she begs. “ _Creators,_ Cullen, if I don’t have you inside of me right now I may die.”

“You won’t,” Bull says. “And not yet.”

“Please, Bull!” 

“Cullen,” the qunari says, “slip a finger inside her and tell me how it feels.”

It is only through sheer force of will that Cyelena doesn’t immediately clamp tightly around Cullen’s finger when it parts her nether lips. She tilts her head back and groans, biting her bottom lip and dragging her nails across the bedsheets.

“Maker, she’s _soaked_ ,” Cullen murmurs. “There’s so much—I mean…”

“Go on.”

“And, and she’s so tight and hot—” 

Cyelena can feel his cock jump and twitch in her hand, almost fully hard now. There can’t possibly be anything _else_ Bull can expect of her, is there?

_“Ar tu na’din, Bull!”_ she cries, pounding her fists on the mattress.

“Ah, there we are,” Bull says. “Knew you’d break into the elvish eventually. All right, Cullen, I think she’s earned your cock.”

Cyelena shivers as she presses the head of his cock to her entrance. The wordless litany of “don’t come, don’t come, don’t come,” in her head is the only thing that keeps her from flying apart as, inch by inch, Cullen slides inside of her.

“Holy Maker,” Cullen says. “You—you feel incredible.”

“Take me,” she implores, trembling from limb to limb. “I can’t—please, you feel so good too, Cullen…”

Bull’s instructions were for her to make Cullen come first. It’s a new kind of torture now, having him inside of her, almost worse than the fondling, because every nerve in her body seems to be pleading with her to let go and find release. But she has orders, and she wants to do well, wants to please Bull, wants to please Cullen most of all. Tears fall freely as she struggles to hold back while Cullen hitches her legs over his shoulders and fucks her into the mattress. 

He looks directly at her through it all, and through the lust clouding her vision, Cyelena can see the deep lines of concentration etched on his brow and the red flush of his cheeks. He’s so beautiful like this, panting with exertion as he thrusts, drawing small, mewling cries from her. 

“Ar lath ma,” she moans, “Ar lath ma, _ar lath ma_ …”

“Yes,” he answers back. “Yes, Cyelena—”

They’ve both grown impatient. The wet sounds of their lovemaking grow as Cullen drives into her faster and grips her hips so hard that bruises are sure to blossom there. Cyelena hardly minds; all she cares about at this very moment is the man on top of her and the aching need of her body. 

Serrated moans and guttural grunts coming from the both of them are loud in her ears. She crosses her ankles behind his head and shoves forward, impaling herself further on his cock. Cullen’s rhythm falters, and he groans lowly. 

“Cyelena—Maker—”

“More, more, _more_.”

_“Yes.”_

His limbs quake, hips stutter. He’s close. 

“ _Please,”_ Cyelena moans. “Come for me, Cullen. In me, for me…”

“You—you too,” Cullen breathes back, squeezing his eyes shut, completely overcome. “Come for me—”

He throws his head back as his orgasm overtakes him, filling her with his seed. “Come for me, love!” he shouts.

It takes but the space of a heartbeat for Cyelena to follow suit. Her vision completely whites out for several long moments; the sound of her screaming sounds distant in her ears, all of her senses overwhelmed by the force of her climax. Wave after wave washes over her, so blindingly powerful that she can barely draw breath. 

When the tremors subside and the stars behind her eyelids fade, Cullen is there, lips pressed to the side of her neck and hands running up and down her sides soothingly. 

“Cullen,” she whispers.

He slips out of her and kisses her mouth gently. She kisses back, languid and slow, her energy completely sapped by the intensity of their lovemaking. As before, Bull hands them a rag, but he doesn’t leave just yet. Cyelena can see the outline of his cock, clearly erect, through his trousers, and the sight of it catches her attention so thoroughly that she nearly misses his question.

“So. That was intense. You doing all right?”

She nods, flicking her eyes back to his face. He probably caught her eyeing his arousal, but he doesn’t comment. “It shouldn’t always be that way though. Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with what you’d been doing before. All you really need is to switch things up, keep the sex interesting.”

No doubt Bull intends to teach them both just how much more interesting sex can be.

 

* * *

 

Bull is gone when she wakes up. It is clearly very late, judging by how low the candles have burned, though the fire continues to roar in the grate. Cullen, no doubt, kindled it several times over as she slept; despite the late hour, he sits at her desk, poring over paperwork. When he notices her staring back at him, he smiles and sets his papers aside.

“I didn’t mean to sleep so long,” Cyelena says.

“It was no trouble. As you can see, I put the intervening time to some good use.” He comes to her then, sliding between the sheets and enfolding her in his arms. “You must have slept well.”

“You did thoroughly exhaust me,” Cyelena says. “It was good. Really good.”

The look on Cullen’s face makes her heart melt; he looks astonished, then proud, then exultant. “Really?”

“Cullen, you’ve always been good. I’ve never had any complaints before.” She sighs. “ _You_ were never the problem.”

He frowns. “Neither were you.”

“Your performances have always been respectable,” she says. “Me, on the other hand…well, I always need too much.” 

“Cyelena…”

She sighs. “There’s no use arguing the point, is there? I guess all that matters is we’re both trying for each other.”

It’s a compromise. Cullen, at least, seems mollified. He presses his lips to her forehead and his hand rests on the crest of her hip, drawing little circles there with his finger. “You know,” he says quietly, “that I would do anything for you. Name it, and it’s yours.”

“I don’t deserve you,” she says, taking his other hand and kissing it. “You are too good to me, more good than I deserve.”

“No,” Cullen says, “not good _enough.”_

“Cullen—”

“I want to be better. You deserve it, truly.”

“I’m not looking to bring another person into our bed because you aren’t enough for me. Bull said to make things interesting, not to change completely.”

Cullen falls completely silent.

“That’s what you’re insinuating, right?” Cyelena turns to look at him properly. “That you’d let Bull have me too if it would please me.”

“I—I’m not against it, if it is something you’d like, that’s all,” he murmurs. 

“That’s irrelevant, at least for right now. The only reason—the _only_ reason—I’d want him to join in is to add to what we already have, not to fulfill me where you seem to think you can’t. For the love of—look what you did for me just tonight!”

“Only because Iron Bull was here to direct me! He’d be able to thoroughly care for anything you’d need, far better than I would! The way you responded to his commands—”

“No. _No,_ Cullen. _You_ responded to him. _You_ were the one in control. He was a guide. There’s no doubt in my mind that if we did the same thing without Bull in the room, I’d be just as sated as I am now.”

“I know you believe that but…” he trails off, doubtful of her words. He’s heard stories of the Iron Bull’s sexual prowess. He doesn’t much care which of them is able to satisfy her lust, so long as he can see it slaked properly. 

“At this point, I wouldn’t be comfortable having him more involved than he is right now,” Cyelena says. “Maybe in the future, if you wanted to, but _only_ if it’s to add ‘interest.’ Not because you want him to do for me what you think you can’t.”

Maker, he loves this woman. So selfless, to reject a prodigious sexual conquest in order to convince him of his own supposed prowess. He supposes that their stalemate will have to hold, at least for now, so he nods, bringing the matter to close for the evening.

 

* * *

 

That Cyelena does not elect to bring him along with her to the Hissing Wastes the following week does not surprise Bull in the least. She no doubt needs time away from both him and Cullen to sort through her feelings. Hell, the time apart might be good for the commander too, even if he does spend much of his waking hours plagued by worry until the Inquisitor is safely back at Skyhold again. 

Bull finds Cullen pacing the battlements one evening at sundown, in the midst of heavy thinking. He falls into step beside him.

“You know there’s no use trying to figure out some way to prove your unworthiness.” Bull finds that there’s something to be said for the direct approach. “Boss likes you the way you are—”

“Ex-excuse me?”

“—and all she really needs is to know how much it satisfies you to see _her_ satisfied by your hand. Let her feel exactly how you _love_ —not just _don’t mind_ —working to give her as much as she needs.”

Cullen, who had been about to retort, shuts his mouth. He mulls over Bull’s words for a long moment. 

“No matter what I tell her, she’ll never believe me,” he says finally.

“For the same reason you won’t believe _her_ when she says it. Do you really think she doesn’t mean it when she tells you how good you are in bed?”

“I—well, no. Not completely.”

“So, what? She’s lying to herself?”

“She’s trying to convince herself that she must be the problem instead of me.”

“And, if that’s what she’s doing, why do you think she’s doing that?”

“…”

“Look, the two options are: you’re the problem, in which case she’s working her ass off to disprove by blaming herself because she cares about you that damn much, or she’s the problem, and you’re wrong about yourself. Or—and this a crazy idea—maybe _neither_ of you are ‘the problem.’  Maybe you’re both two adults figuring out a relationship, and you’re both committed to being the best you can be for each other.”

“Well…” Cullen says slowly. “Iron Bull, I don’t doubt that the key to all of this is to work things out over time, but…surely it takes someone with more stamina to satisfy a woman properly!”

“There are a lot of things you don’t need that type of _stamina_ for, you know. Besides, the Inquisitor doesn’t seem to have more of a preference for your cock than just for you in general.”

“But she _is_ eager for—for _that_. The minute we’ve finished she’s trying to get me—get me going again.”

“Because she needs your cock specifically, or because she wants to make sure you get at least two orgasms to compensate for dealing with what she figures is some sort of dysfunction in her?”

That renders Cullen completely speechless for several minutes. Bull strides along next to him without further prodding, giving the commander whatever time he needs to process his suggestion. In the end, it isn’t Cullen or Bull who breaks the silence, but a courier, who comes running from the opposite end of the battlements to deliver correspondence. Bull can hear Cullen’s audible sigh of relief for the distraction, which turns out to be a letter from the Inquisitor. He grins to himself when the commander makes his apologies and excuses himself to deal with preparations for the Inquisitor’s return, which is set for the following afternoon.

Bull has little doubt that Cullen’s idea of preparation for the next day includes more than gathering reports for her consideration at the War Table.


End file.
